Archive for the ‘Turkey Day Challenge’ Category

Thanks everyone for competing in our fourth annual Turkey Day Challenge! We hope everyone had a super Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday shopping if that floats your boat.

Thanksgiving Thursday was a huge football day with three NFL games. Hey – perfect for some Fantasy Throwdown and our patented* three NFL game player pool weekly fantasy football format. From that simple connection, the first ever Turkey Day Challenge was born back in 2011.

* not really

In this year’s Turkey Day Challenge, each member who signed up played three Throwdown games. Each game included two NFL games from Thursday, and the player chose the third game they wanted included in the challenge. The opponents were Mike (yours truly), tttimmyg (Tim Grinstead of Three Keys to Victory fame) and Throwdown1.

Surprise: Throwdown1 was actually expert consensus rankings from FantasyPros for Week 13, so essentially a computer player without any real draft strategy other than selecting straight down the list of players from the QB-flex cheatsheet. Note, the rankings may have changed slightly since I downloaded them earlier in the week.

We offered up a 100% payout prize pool, plus t-shirts on top of that, and capped the contest at 15 entries. We had 13 entries, which I believe means some overlay, not that my first priority is all of the daily fantasy sports lingo. We’re in this for the fantasy football! Okay, plus some cash in this case. 1st place wins $150, 2nd $75, 3rd $50 and 4th $25, while 1st through 6th win a t-shirt.

Players earn 2 points for a win, plus 0.5 bonus for winning a game by 21 or more points. The tie-breaker after these points is total point differential for the three Throwdown games. Check the original TDC post for full rules. Finally, lets get to the results.

W

L

+21

Pts

PF

PA

Dif

1. Ditka

3

0

3

7.5

517.4

355.9

161.6

2. jeffNFL

3

0

3

7.5

468.0

384.2

83.8

3. uswjnk85

3

0

2

7

483.1

425.2

57.9

4. thunder

3

0

1

6.5

456.8

386.8

70.0

5. mikemar

2

1

1

4.5

416.1

359.7

56.4

6. rhazes_darkk

2

1

1

4.5

461.0

409.4

51.6

7. Luxuriousdusti

2

1

1

4.5

865.0

839.8

25.3

8. Luxuriousdusti #2

2

1

1

4.5

423.6

411.6

12.0

9. Wilforkisland

1

2

1

2.5

842.4

826.4

16.0

10. Kjhawkey

1

2

1

2.5

400.9

385.1

15.8

11. Wilforkisland #2

1

2

1

2.5

422.0

435.0

-13.0

12. Doclate

1

2

1

2.5

426.9

457.1

-30.3

13. raptors

0

3

0

0

371.5

466.0

-94.5

Congrats Ditka for being crowned our Turkey Day Champ! He clearly hammered all three games earning the half point bonus in each. Here are the three games so we can see what worked for him:

Mike vs. Ditka

tttimmyg vs. Ditka

Throwdown1 vs. Ditka

A heavy dose of Calvin Johnson and Alshon Jeffery in the first pair of games did the trick. Paying early at the QB position coupled with Tony Romo’s dud of a game, plus winning at tight end and defense, pushed him past the consensus rankings player Throwdown1.

JeffNFL continued his season-long Throwdown dominance going 3-0, including all three wins by 21+, but loses out on the points differential tie-breaker to finish 2nd.

uswjnk85 finishes 3rd with a 3-0 record and two games won by 21+.

thunder closes out the 3-0 performances to finish 4th.

We had four entries with 2-1 won-loss records, including a single 21+ point win for 4.5 points. mikemar and rhazes_darkk finish 5th and 6th, respectively, based on the points differential tie-breaker.

Congrats to all of our winners and thanks again to all of our players! We hope you enjoyed the 2014 Turkey Day Challenge!

Happy Thanksgiving! We’re going to do things a little different this year with our Turkey Day Challenge than in the past.

The format this year is similar to last year’s NFL Playoffs Challenge, where each member signs up to play in the TDC, and receives three Fantasy Throwdown challenges to be played against an independent Throwdown admin player.

The individual games include at least two of three Thanksgiving Day games, and the overall winner of the TDC will be the player who earns the most points, based on wins and margin of victory, in their three games.

Format and Rules

Each contestant receives three official Fantasy Throwdown challenges marked “TDC” (Turkey Day Challenge).

Contestants need to accept the challenges and finish their drafts against a representative from Fantasy Throwdown prior to the start of the first game on Thanksgiving Day.

Once results are in after the last game of NFL Week 13, points are awarded for wins, and standings are tabulated for the Turkey Day Challenge. Contestants earn 2 points for a win, plus a half point bonus if they win by 21 or more points.

First Two NFL Games (Player Pool), Lineup and Scoring

TDC Game #1

Bears-Lions and Eagles-Cowboys

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF, 1 Block

Standard performance + 1 PPR

TDC Game #2

Bears-Lions and Seahawks-49ers

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O, 1 DEF, 1 Block

Standard performance + 1 PPR

TDC Game #3

Eagles-Cowboys and Seahawks-49ers

1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O+, 1 DEF, 1 Block

Standard performance + 1 PPR

O = Flex RB/WR/TE; O+ = Flex QB/RB/WR/TE

Prizes

Overall Prizes

1st Place: $150 + t-shirt

2nd Place: $75 + t-shirt

3rd Place: $50 + t-shirt

4th Place: $25 + t-shirt

5th Place: T-shirt

6th Place: T-shirt

Turkey Day Challenge winners (1st through 6th) also receive the turkey icon (only time of the year to receive it!) and achievement bonus points of 15, 12.5, 10, 7.5, 5 and 2.5 respectively, towards their Leaderboard ranking.

Entry Fee

$20 per entry

This contest is capped at a maximum of 15 entries. Contestants can purchase multiple entries to help increase their chances of winning.

Important Points

Contest Entry Deadline

The deadline to join the Turkey Day Challenge is Wednesday November 26th at 10:00pm Eastern, to help ensure drafts are finished prior to opening kickoff of the first Thanksgiving Day game.

Incomplete Drafts

If a contestant fails to accept and sufficiently complete their draft (at least 7 picks made) prior to Thursday at 10:00am Eastern on Thanksgiving, then Fantasy Throwdown cannot guarantee the draft will be finished before opening kickoff. An incomplete draft will expire, and no points awarded to the contestant for that match.

Standings Tie-breakers

In the event contestants are tied in the standings based on points earned, the first tie-breaker is overall point differential.

Multiple Entries

Contestants can purchase multiple entries. These will be marked TDC (first entry), TD2, (second entry), TD3 (third), etc., etc. Contestants cannot combine TDC game results from one entry to another. Each will be tracked separately.

I hope you decide to join us in this contest to celebrate Thanksgiving and fantasy football at Fantasy Throwdown! Sign up today so you don’t miss out. Good luck!

Thanksgiving is behind us and Christmas is on the horizon, but before we close the book on the best holiday of the year (as informally polled amongst fantasy football players), we are done calculating the eagerly anticipated Turkey Day Challenge III results.

For those who missed it, our annual Turkey Day Challenge tests our members’ ability to earn achievements and awards while playing Fantasy Throwdown using the NFL games in their challenges from Thanksgiving Day. There was no sign up necessary, and plenty of different achievements to try to hit.

To play a qualifying Turkey Day Challenge game, it needed to have at least two of the three games from Thanksgiving – Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders at Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens. The two of three rule is why the results are not out until now, because we still had eight qualifying games waiting on the results from Monday Night Football’s New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks game.

Look at that, another t-shirt for me and laoch. We’re going to be charter members of Fantasy Throwdown Anonymous, although admitting we have a problem is the first step, and we’re not there yet. Sorry laoch, limit 1 t-shirt per person is still in effect. Along with the $5 account credit, I’m going to randomly draw the t-shirt I won, and laoch won, amongst the remaining members who had at least three TDC games played. Here we go:

T-shirt #1 goes to . . . jeffNFL

T-shirt #2 goes to . . . Jessect6

$5 account credit goes to . . . barkeviouspubes

Congrats to our winners, and thanks to everyone for playing! Hope you enjoyed the Turkey Day Challenge.

It is time! Welcome to kickoff of one of our most popular Fantasy Throwdown events of the year, the now third annual Turkey Day Challenge!

The Turkey Day Challenge simulates accumulating trophies in video games. Play qualifying Turkey Day Challenge games of Fantasy Throwdown, hit certain pre-determined achievements, earn points, and the player who earns the most points is crowned our Turkey Day Champ!

To play a qualifying Turkey Day Challenge game it must include at least two of the three games played on Thanksgiving: Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders at Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens.

After all of these Throwdown games are final – as late as next Monday Night Football – points will be tabulated for all players who participated in the Turkey Day Challenge.

Go it so far? Great. Check out the list of achievements, then prizes and more rule details below. Once you’re through that, get going and Throwdown! All TDC drafts must be complete prior to the earliest game in your challenges (on Thursday). That is a small window to get in the TDC, so get to it, and good luck!

Individual Achievements

1. Number of challenges issued to and accepted by a newly registered Throwdown member or existing registered Throwdown member with no games played (so far) this season – 2 points per completed draft (both players)

2. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who posts commentary or screen shot of their draft on Facebook and tags our Facebook page in the post – 1 point per completed draft

3. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who tweets commentary or screen shot of their draft and includes our Twitter account in the tweet – 1 point per completed draft

4. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who posts commentary or screen shot of their draft on Google+ and tags my Google+ page in the post – 1 point per completed draft

5. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who posts commentary or screen shot of their draft on fantasy football message board (no spamming; must be genuine discussion contributing to value of a board where you regularly post) – 1 point per completed draft

6. Number of challenges issued and accepted by a registered Throwdown player – 0.5 points per completed draft

7. Number of games played (challenger or challengee) – 0.5 points per completed draft

8. Number of games won – 2 points per win

9. Number of games won by >= 14 points – 1 point per win by 14 or more points

10. Number of games won by >= 28 points – 1 point per win by 28 or more points (also scores 1 for achievement #9)

11. Number of games won using 3 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win

12. Drafted player who records the longest passing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

13. Drafted player who records the longest rushing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

14. Drafted player who records the longest receiving TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

15. Drafted player who draws the longest defensive pass interference penalty on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

16. Drafted any player who records ten solo tackles, or two or more sacks, or a turnover plus touchdown on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

4. Lowest individual team score, and still won – 5 points for each of above lineup options

Group Awards

1. Largest round robin group, meaning largest group of Throwdown players who play at least one game against every other person in the group (i.e. a round robin) – 3 points per Throwdown player in the group; one group representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all group members for consideration

2. Quartet of Throwdown players who each play at least one game against every other person in the quartet (i.e. a round robin), and have the highest cumulative followers on their Twitter accounts – 3 points per Throwdown player in the quartet; one quartet representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all quartet members for consideration

3. Highest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of above lineup options from the Individual Awards section

4. Lowest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game, all players drafted must be starters per the Throwdown depth chart excluding the Block – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of above lineup options from the Individual Awards section

Bonus Award

Player who achieves points in the most different achievement and award categories listed above – 5 points

Rules

All Turkey Day Challenge qualifying games must include at least two of three NFL games played on Thanksgiving Day.

There is no maximum or minimum number of games a player can play for the Turkey Day Challenge.

Player will be ranked based on all points earned based on the above listed achievements. In the event of a tie, then the first tie-breaker is total points earned from the individual achievements section.

Prizes

Fantasy Throwdown offers the following to the winners of Turkey Day Challenge:

Spread the word! The more the merrier for the Turkey Day Challenge. If there are any questions, leave a comment below. For achievements such as largest group, or posting to social networks or message boards to make sure I see it, leave a comment with link. Thanks!

That took some time tabulating results from our Turkey Day Challenge, but I believe I’ve got it all sewn up now. Congrats to Wilforkisland, our runaway Turkey Day Champ for 2012!

Wilforkisland (still love that username), competed in 33 qualifying Turkey Day challenges, won 20 of those matches, and invested heavily in Dez Bryant and Aaron Hernandez, two of our three mystery players. He won an amazing 14 of 20 by 14+ points, and 10 of those wins by 28+ points. Wow. That is some domination.

Yours truly, username Mike, finished second more thanks to quantity of games than quality of fantasy football skill. I did hit more different achievements and awards than any other competitor though, giving me the 5 points bonus award.

patwat finished third, TheKommish fourth and DLFootball fifth. Check the entire results table to see what achievements each person hit and how many times.

How important was the New England defense on Thanksgiving thanks to the pair of defense / special teams touchdowns? Thank you Mark Sanchez. That play will be burned into our brain for eternity.

Some notables from the challenge include RyanMc23 winning the largest round robin group of five players – cwill0303, DLFootball, FBGWILL, Mike and RyanMc23 – with a perfect 4-0 record. Not only was it the largest submitted round robin, but the games were “all bench” challenges, where every player drafted except kicker and defense were tabbed as bench players in our depth chart.

Browsing through the games, I’m sure there were more round robins. In fact, I think I even found one with at least six players and stopped there, it may be bigger. It wasn’t a planned round robin though, just a coincidence each person in that group played everyone else in the group.

DLFootball, RyanMc23 and Mike formed the trio with the highest number of Twitter followers. Okay, I’m riding coattails a bit there.

TheKommish was the only person, short of myself, who tagged our Facebook page in a post and I was the only person who tweeted out a screen shot of at least one of my Turkey Day Challenge drafts.

The longest touchdown pass I was sure was going to go to Robert Griffin III and Aldrick Robinson, but Tony Romo to Dez Bryant trumped it later in the same game. For the second year in a row the longest rushing TD went to a non-starter. Last year, Keiland Williams, who no one drafted. This year, Justin Forsett, who was drafted once by cwill0303 in an all-bench challenge.

The smallest margin of victory across all Turkey Day Challenges was just 0.10 points, Wilforkisland over Airbus79. That is a kick in the pants.

As mentioned, check the results table for the standings and I also included a link to download my results spreadsheet for a little more detail for each achievement and award.

Okay, that wraps up our Turkey Day Challenge. Congrats again to all of our standout performers, and thanks again for playing!

Our annual Turkey Day Challenge is in full swing, but the week is flying by and time is running out to get your qualifying challenges – challenges with at least two Thanksgiving Day games – finished prior to kickoff on Thursday. The first game on Thursday is Houston Texans at Detroit Lions, kickoff 12:30 Eastern.

Included below are some stats run from our database to give an update on the number of challenges and players we have participating in our Turkey Day Challenge, and how our players might be doing ticking off the achievements and awards list to be crowned our Turkey Day Challenge Champ.

Something I want to clarify with the achievements that are NFL player specific, like drafting the QB who records the longest TD pass for example. The players who help earn the achievement must play on Thursday. Even if you have a challenge which includes a non-Thursday game, and your QB throws the longest TD of any player who plays Thursday, it is the Thursday guy who had the longest TD. We are celebrating Thanksgiving Day football, after all. Okay, on to the stats.

Drafts are ongoing (at a fast pace I might add!), but as of about an hour ago we had 114 qualifying Turkey Day challenges. These are challenges accepted at least to the point the games are picked, even if the draft may not be finished.

Of the 114 qualifying challenges, 81 used all three Thursday games in their challenge. 33 used two of three and otherwise picked a Sunday or the Monday game.

Here are our players with the most qualifying games played so far: Wilforkisland (25), patwat (23), Mike (15), TheKommish (15), Airbus79 (13), Terminalkennedy (13), robshell (12), WHUDEY (12), laoch (9) and then a bunch of people with 8 and lower.

The only people I’ve seen hit achievement #2, tagging our Facebook page, is TheKommish and myself. The only person I’ve seen hit achievement #3, tweeting about a challenge draft and including our Twitter account, is me. Well on my way to the 5 points bonus for hitting the most different achievements and awards!

The player for achievement #16 and #17 is drafted 47 times out of the 114 qualifying challenges. Note the player for #16 through #21 must be drafted to the active lineup, not blocked.

The player for achievement #18 and #19 is drafted 57 times.

The player for achievement #20 and #21 is drafted 53 times.

Only one player so far, TheKommish, has mentioned a round robin group for group award #1, and I haven’t checked the status of his group. No one has put forward a trio for group award #2. Opportunity knocks!

Okay, that is it for the update. I haven’t figured out how many challenges had a QB blocked, which could set someone up for the “draft the top QB, block the 2nd best QB” achievement. I also haven’t figured out how many bench players are drafted so far, although I participated in three “all bench” challenges myself. There are a couple value picks out there on the bench.

One of Fantasy Throwdown’s biggest special events last year, our inaugural season (not including that old prototype website… let’s not get into that today), was the celebration of Thanksgiving and football with the Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Challenge.

Thanksgiving week is finally here, and this is the official announcement to kickoff the second annual Turkey Day Challenge. The concept is pretty straight forward. Play Fantasy Throwdown, include NFL games in your challenge that are played on Thanksgiving this Thursday (Texans-Lions, Redskins-Cowboys, Patriots-Jets), and earn points from your Throwdown games based on the laundry list of possible achievements and awards below.

The player who earns the most points wins our Turkey Day Challenge. The more you play, the more chances you have to hit achievements and awards, and the more points you earn.

Last year, Throwdown games that used all three of the Thanksgiving Day games qualified for our Turkey Day Challenge. It was a ton of fun, but a bit tedious once we got 15 or so challenges under our belt. This year, all Throwdown games that include any two (or all three) of the Thanksgiving Day games qualify for the TDC.

Again, picking the games is in the players’ hands, so you and your opponent should agree beforehand you are playing a TDC match, and the two players must pick at least two of the three Thanksgiving games. Perhaps that is more incentive to choose the first two NFL games in the challenge. Obviously, the drafts for all TDC games still have to be completed prior to kickoff of your earliest Thanksgiving Day game.

In terms of prizes, our t-shirt stock is getting low, but we should be able to muster up an official Throwdown t-shirt for the top three finishers. We will also add 10 points towards the Leaderboard ranking formula for the TDC Champ, 7.5 points for second place and 5 points for third. Eternal bragging rights are also up for grabs.

Okay, ready for the achievements and awards list? We dropped a couple from last year because they turned out to be too difficult to score, but we added some new ones. Ready. Set. Throwdown!

Individual Achievements

1. Number of challenges issued to and accepted by a previously non-registered Throwdown player (referral) – 2 points per completed draft (both players)

2. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who posts commentary or screen shot of their draft on Facebook and tags our Facebook page in the post – 1 point per completed draft

3. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who tweets commentary or screen shot of their draft and includes our Twitter account in the tweet – 1 point per completed draft

4. Number of challenges issued and accepted by a registered Throwdown player – 0.5 points per completed draft

5. Number of games played (challenger or challengee) – 0.5 points per completed draft

6. Number of games won – 2 points per win

7. Number of games won by >= 14 points – 1 point per win by 14 or more points

8. Number of games won by >= 28 points – 1 point per win by 28 or more points (also scores 1 for achievement #7)

9. Number of games won using 2 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win; bench players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart on Tuesday November 20 at 12:00 noon Eastern

10. Number of games won using 3 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win (also scores 1 for achievement #9)

11. Drafted player who records the longest passing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

12. Drafted player who records the longest rushing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

13. Drafted player who records the longest receiving TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

14. Drafted player who draws the longest defensive pass interference penalty on Thanksgiving (its about time this was scored for fantasy, right?) – 1 point per completed draft

15. Drafted any player who records ten solo tackles, or two or more sacks, or a turnover plus touchdown on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

1) He’s easier to bring down when forced to run parallel to the line of scrimmage than the backs ahead of him. 2) He struggled against defenses that forced him to choose a second option at the line of scrimmage. 3) He lacks dynamic change of direction. 4) Defenders have an easier time tackling [insert name] at the feet and ankles than the backs I ranked ahead of him. 5) His pass protection needs work and more consistent effort.

– 1 point per completed draft

17. Drafted player from achievement #16 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

18. Drafted player who was graded in the “Best and Worst By Category” section at his position of Matt Waldman’s Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Best: Separation, Routes, Elusiveness, Balance, and Worst: Ball Handling – 1 point per completed draft

19. Drafted player from achievement #18 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

20. Drafted player who Mike MacGregor drafted in a 2012 mock draft writing, “He’s inherently risky, and we know this, but one of these seasons he may just pay off huge for the risk takers.” – 1 point per completed draft

21. Drafted player from achievement #20 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

4. Lowest individual team score, and still won – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

Group Awards

1. Largest round robin group, meaning largest group of Throwdown players who play at least one game against every other person in the group (i.e. a round robin) – 3 points per Throwdown player in the group; one group representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all group members to Mike for consideration

2. Trio of Throwdown players who each play at least one game against every other person in the trio (i.e. a round robin), and have the highest cumulative followers on their Twitter accounts – 3 points per Throwdown player in the trio; one trio representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all trio members to Mike for consideration

3. Highest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

4. Lowest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game, all starting players drafted excluding the Block – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats; starting players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart on Tuesday November 20 at 12:00 noon Eastern

Bonus Award

Player who achieves points in the most different achievement and award categories listed above – 5 points

There you have it, 30 different achievements or awards to hit and score points, plus the bonus award, to try to earn the honor of becoming Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Champ! Good luck!

He just barely sniped MtgProHammer for the honor scoring an even 100 points for his achievements and awards in official Throwdown Turkey Day challenges as outlined in our Turkey Day Competition for Thanksgiving last week. MtgProHammer scored 99 points, just one behind. DLFootball finished third with 84.5, FBGWILL fourth with 74 and Matt fifth with 61 points.

One thing raptors proved, is you didn’t have to play the most games to finish at the top of the results. He played 17 games, which was less than our second (36), third (33) and fourth (23) place finishers.

What set raptors apart was an impressive 12 wins in his 17 games. Plus, drafting Aaron Rodgers 16 times earned him a big bonus for drafting the player with the longest passing TD for the day. He also scored points by initiating 11 challenges, heavily drafting two of our “mystery” players – Kevin Smith and Jordy Nelson – plus 5 point awards for lowest margin of victory, highest team score and lowest combined score.

MtgProHammer won only 9 of his 36 challenges, which is way off his historical win percentage (I know how he feels). He decided to forego Aaron Rodgers is many of his challenges drafting him only twice, which wasn’t a bad plan since Matthew Stafford and Tony Romo were not far off Rodgers in fantasy points, but it cost Hammer in the longest passing TD bonus. Hammer was part of the largest round robin group and earned that bonus. Others in that group were DLFootball, EyeoftheGator, jrnall2 and RoadWarrior.

Overall our Turkey Day Competition was a big success. There were 210 qualifying Turkey Day games, played by 126 different Throwdown players. It took some time to tabulate the results! Now I have the queries in place it should be somewhat faster next year, although I never did figure out the “Best use of the Block” award, so no one scored points for that.

Another category that scored nil points was longest rushing TD. No one drafted Keiland Williams to earn points for his 19 yard scamper into the end zone, even in the handful of “bench only” challenges some people initiated. Also, none of our mystery players, James Starks being the other to go along with Smith and Nelson, scored a TD, so individual achievements #13, #15 and #17 were nil across the board.

Although my own Thanksgiving Day win-loss record was poor at 3-11 (yikes, hurts to type that), I did set out to hit as many different achievements as possible, and in the end I earned points in 13 achievements and awards. That was the most of anyone, earning me 5 bonus points. raptors and ShanePHallam each had points in 12 different categories, and four different people earned points in 10 categories.

Check the complete results table, and below are the top 30 finishers. I posted some detailed stats in the forum over the weekend if you want to check my work. Note on the awards such as margin of victory, points were awarded for each of the different scoring and lineup options.

Busy week. Fun week. Let’s keep this update short(ish) because I know many of you are travelling for the holidays or getting fired up for turkey (or short ribs), football, and maybe some shopping.

Turkey Day Competition

It is rolling along nicely. Did you miss the note about this? Check the post from Monday with all the details. Here are my comments from what we’ve seen so far:

All three Thursday games must be selected for it to be a qualifying T-Day challenge. There isn’t an explicit option for that, so try communicating with your opponent via the message box on the challenge issue/accept page to see if they want to do a T-Day only challenge or not.

I haven’t seen any questions about who are the “mystery” players for individual achievements #12, #14 and #16. Perhaps they were too easy. I’ve seen a lot of #14 drafted, many #16 and not so much #12.

Is anyone going to hit all 17 individual achievements? The ones about drafting bench players, #7 and #8, are tough. DLFootball and I had to specifically agree in advance to each draft three bench players. Come on, Titus Young. This may help us win group award #3.

No one has emailed me an organized round robin for group award #1. I will try to find the biggest group amongst all the T-Day challenges – and I’m up to four as soon as I kick Matt’s ass – but it isn’t easy to figure out from reviewing all of the challenges, so let me know if you’ve got a group of four, five or more.

I’m going to add a bonus 5 points to the one Throwdown player who scores points for the most different achievements and awards. I may draft Torrey Smith later just in case he ends up being the player with the longest TD catch on Thursday. Hmm… I guess that means I should draft Flacco too. Not sure I like that part.

If anyone has any questions about the Turkey Day Competition, shoot them over to me via email, Facebook or Twitter. I’ve been posting some stats and observations on Twitter, so follow us there.

I may be longer than usual sending out the game results and tabulating the stats from Thursday, with all of the extra stuff to figure out, not to mention trying to do it under the combined beer-tryptophan-more beer influence. Our stat provider may suffer from the same issue too, in which case I’ll really be stuck.

In other Fantasy Throwdown news and notes, we have some exciting announcements on the horizon, but let’s leave those until next week. For now, enjoy the holiday, and remember, if you’re looking for something to put your in-laws in their place, challenge them to a game of Fantasy Throwdown!

There are three NFL games on Thanksgiving. There are three NFL games used to form the player pool for a Fantasy Throwdown challenge. Sounds like a perfect match for a Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Competition!

Throwdown players can accumulate points by participating in official Throwdown Turkey Day challenges. An official Throwdown Turkey Day challenge is simply a game of Fantasy Throwdown where all three NFL games are the games played on Thanksgiving Day. (Note: You and your opponent will have to manually select the three Thanksgiving Day games when you set up your Throwdown match.)

The top point getters, plus category award winners, will be recognized as the best Throwdown Turkey Day players in this event. The top point getter will be crowned our Turkey Day Champ!

Earn points in the following categories:

Individual Achievements

1. Number of challenges issued to and accepted by a non-registered Throwdown player (referral) – 2 points per completed draft

2. Number of challenges issued and accepted by a registered Throwdown player – 0.5 points per completed draft

3. Number of games played (challenger or challengee) – 0.5 points per completed draft

4. Number of games won – 2 points per win

5. Number of games won by >= 14 points – 1 point per win by 14 or more points

6. Number of games won by >= 28 points – 1 point per win by 28 or more points (also scores 1 for achievement #5)

7. Number of games won using 2 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win; bench players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart at the time the player is drafted

8. Number of games won using 3 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win (also scores 1 for achievement #7)

9. Drafted player who records the longest passing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

10. Drafted player who records the longest rushing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

11. Drafted player who records the longest receiving TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

12. Drafted player who Matt Waldman once wrote, “there is also a bit of Roy Hobbs to his story.” – 1 point per completed draft

13. Drafted player from achievement #12 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

14. Drafted player who Matt Waldman once wrote, “His gliding, flexible, and hard-cutting style and his ability to reverse field is reminiscent of Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson.” – 1 point per completed draft

15. Drafted player from achievement #14 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

16. Drafted player who Mike MacGregor drafted in the 10th round of a 2011 mock draft writing he, “has a nice opportunity for a breakout season.” – 1 point per completed draft

17. Drafted player from achievement #16 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

4. Lowest individual team score, and still won – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

5. Best use of Block (biggest difference between points for player blocked and lowest points at same position for opposing player) – 3 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats … assuming we can figure this out very easily

Group Awards

1. Largest round robin group, meaning largest group of Throwdown players who play at least one game against every other person in the group (i.e. a round robin) – 3 points per Throwdown player in the group; one group representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all group members to Mike by email for consideration

2. Highest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

3. Lowest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game, all starting players drafted excluding the Block – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats; starting players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart at the time the player is drafted

There you have it, 25 different achievements or awards to hit and score points to try to earn the honor of becoming the first ever, Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Champ! Good luck!